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Features
Projecting Volkswagen’s Image
Volkswagen has certainly created the wow factor in its showrooms using 3M’s Vikuiti rear projection screens.
Dynamic wide screen and interactive digital displays installed at Volkswagen’s Chelmsford and Milton Keynes dealerships feature 3M’s Vikuiti rear projection technology. And the eye-catching, feature rich content systems, installed by Creative Graphics International, CGI, have certainly captured customer attention, maximising brand assets to the full. With its track record of instilling brand energy and vitality in its advertising and promotion campaigns, Volkswagen is using the displays to really stand out from the crowd. A 96in, 16:9 Vikuiti screen has been hung on the first floor of the newly built flagship Volkswagen dealership in Chelmsford, Essex. A ceiling mounted projector beams the rich content, streaming video that is designed to educate, entertain and inform customers of the latest Volkswagen offers and information. The system is controlled at Volkswagen’s UK head office in Milton Keynes. Spectacularly hovering over an open atrium on the ground floor, the giant screen is intended to catch the customer's eye and drive traffic upstairs to peruse the used car stock. "We have been extremely pleased with the performance and value of the giant display in our new Chelmsford premises, especially compared to the price of plasma or LCD," comments Darren Thompson, Brand Manager at Inchcape Chelmsford. "The objective was to create a real wow factor when customers pass through the atrium and the Vikuiti Screen has helped achieve this with its huge size, wide viewing angle and high brightness." The second Vikuiti screen, this time using the film version, has been installed as a pilot in the showroom window of the Volkswagen dealership in Milton Keynes. Combined with an interactive touch foil, the 40in, 4:3 display empowers customers to access and navigate the Volkswagen website to view or configure cars stocked locally and nationally in their own time simply by touching the screen. This is especially appealing for those potential customers that do not wish to speak to a salesman and tend to visit the showroom out of hours for peace and quiet. "Although only a pilot, initial indications of customer favourability towards the interactive window display have been positive,” says Spencer Huggett, Brand Manager at Wayside Milton Keynes Volkswagen. “It has been completely reliable and looks great, even in bright daylight." The two digital displays were installed by CGI who design, manufacture and install graphics and signage for transport industry sectors, including automotive, aircraft and leisure related transport such as boats, caravans and motorbikes. The company recently ventured into the digital signage marketplace as a reseller of 3M and is, as a result, receiving great interest in Vikuiti rear projection displays from customers primarily in automotive. According to Steve Perry of CGI, "Car dealerships committed to new build premises are willing to make the investment in new technology and the Vikuiti Rear Projection Screen is regarded as good value for money. We are planning to feature Vikuiti Screens in more of our work in the future as we regard digital signage as a complementary medium to static signage installations in this market - the two go hand in glove with one another. The key factor to remember is that the screen is only as good as the content fed to it. Luckily, Volkswagen is content rich and they are already channelling footage through their V-TV LCD systems in dealerships." Adding to that, Lloyd Cole, 3M’s European Marketing Manager, says, "This is testament to the increasing popularity of the Vikuiti screen as a dynamic display medium in car showrooms for their ability to attract and engage customers. The screen is lightweight and easy to install, and combining it with other self-adhesive text or graphics allows for even greater visual impact."
Pre-cut sheets
On its development front for Vikuiti, 3M has now moved into pre-cut sheets, providing a highly flexible option for the projection medium for dealers and buyers as a convenient, easy to order solution for one-off digital signage applications. Demands for digital screens to create dynamic in-window advertising displays out of home are increasing in a variety of sectors. Responding to this and AV trade requirements for added flexibility in screen cutting and installation, Vikuiti now comes in standard 60in sheets, providing an ideal alternative when cutting facilities are not available. The sheets are also more convenient for one-off, low volume applications. “The cut sheets enable dealers to give buyers exactly what they want in order to maximise the effectiveness of their store windows,” says Lloyd Cole. “Once Vikuiti film has been applied and is playing out content, windows are transformed into eye-catching multimedia displays able to communicate sophisticated and complex offers to attract audience attention and drive footfall.” The pre-cut sheets measure 60in diagonally, and support both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Unlike other window display systems, Vikuiti boasts crisp, high contrast image quality combined with a wide viewing angle of 180O, making it ideal for shop fronts with narrow pavements. It is also said to be the only film that can be effectively viewed in daylight and in bright ambient light locations such as shopping centre atriums. And the lightweight solution is easy to install and can be applied to rigid clear acrylic panels to create easily portable displays.
Introducing the in-store virtual shop assistant
Latest development from 3M, and this could well knock your socks off, is the Vikuiti virtual sales person, with the rear projection technology creating human form digital PoS displays. By using a Vikuiti rear projection screen cut to the shape of a human body and projecting 2D characters on its surface, enterprising Dutch agency Boost Products has created a virtual shop assistant capable of communicating promotions to passing shoppers. And the concept is already running in-store at a supermarket in The Netherlands. “Boost works a lot with supermarket sales promotion teams to translate media campaigns to the retail floor and, in this particular case, we produced the idea of bringing virtual promotion teams to the floor by projecting them on to Vikuiti Screens,” comments Boost Products MD Raymond Lentz. “Our company totally believes in the usage of Vikuiti rear projection screens in-store - not just for window dressing - to increase sales and convey strong, compelling brands.” “The impact of the 2D character displays, which could also be celebrity endorsers or cartoon characters,” Lentz continues, “is enormous and offers a state of the art concept with which a retail advertiser and marketer can make a real difference. Boost is now developing concepts that can be used in the entertainment industry.” The Boost products team was convinced of the Vikuiti screen quality after visiting a tradeshow in Utrecht. Once selected, 3M and a local distributor provided full support to ensure an efficient and cost-effective installation process. A video of the shop assistant promoting a specific brand was produced by Boost and the screen was laser cut to the human shape by the distributor. The screen was then placed on the shop floor next to a sales display and the projector was installed on the ceiling. The projector connects up to the Boost narrowcasting system, which controls play out of the video from a remote location. Once the video is playing, the virtual salesperson comes alive with outstanding performance under the bright lights of the supermarket. “This is a fantastic new application for Vikuiti, concludes 3M’s Lloyd Cole. “The ability to cut it to any shape or size is the key to the whole solution and the creative possibilities are endless. “Any media agency interested in point of sale now has an opportunity to create something novel and to consider how they can put together a total package that includes screen, projector and content and promote the idea to end users.”
www.3M.co.uk/vikuiti
www.cgi-visual.com
www.boostproducts.nl
